13th Annual Cinema on the Bayou to be held January 24 – 31, 2018

January 15, 2018

The 13th Cinema on the Bayou Film Festival opens Wednesday, January 24, 2018, at 6:30 p.m. at Acadiana Center for the Arts. Featuring nearly 180 premier screenings of films from around the world, movies will be shown at venues in and around Lafayette during the annual eight-day Festival which wraps up January 31, 2018.

The Festival will open with the screening of Rifles & Rosary Beads, a short documentary about the power of turning trauma into art. The film documents the making of an album written by Mary Gauthier and combat veterans and their spouses at SongwritingWith:Soldiers retreats. The film will be followed by a musical performance by Mary, a Louisiana native and folk singer-songwriter based in Nashville.

According to their mission statement, Cinema on the Bayou Film Festival is committed to presenting nationally and internationally acclaimed documentary and narrative fiction films and filmmakers with truly original voices. The festival is also committed to advancing the understanding of Cajun and Creole cultures through film screenings, film panels and cultural exchanges among French Louisiana, the United States and the Francophone countries of the world.

In addition to the film screenings, the Festival will present expert panel discussions, workshops, filmmaker Q&A’s, nightly parties and live music.

The Festival was founded in 2006 by filmmaker Pat Mire, who serves as the Artistic Director, and was named one of the Top 15 Winter Film Festivals in the U.S. by AudNews, an on-line magazine for filmmakers and film lovers.

Cinema on the Bayou was also named as the Editors’ Choice for goings on during January in the South and beyond by Garden and Gun Magazine. Describing our Cajun Country setting as a “stew of French, Spanish, and African influences,” the Editors concluded that it was an ideal spot for Cinema on the Bayou, an international film festival “charged with exposing attendees to the most original voices in film while fostering cultural exchange among the French-speaking peoples of the world.”

Opening night tickets and Festival passes can be purchased through Eventbrite. A fun promo film by Pat Mire films may be enjoyed here.